Family Card - Person Sheet
Family Card - Person Sheet
NameThomas Leach United Empire Loyalist - DDirect Ancestor 
Birthabt 1750
Notes for Thomas Leach United Empire Loyalist - DDirect Ancestor
Elizabeth Leach was a daughter of Thomas Leach a United Empire Loyalist Refugee . He arrived in Saint John on board the spring fleet on the ship called Hope in 1784[1]. The records indicate that he departed from New York with a wife and two children, one over and one under 10 years of age and no servants. It does not record his home state. In May 1784 the family is still intact. So he would have been born about 1750 and married about 1772.
Thomas Leach is included in a Grant (38761), dated 1 July 1785, by John Parr, Esquire Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia and its dependencies, Vice Admiral of the same. In the grant Thomas Leach is listed on the top line of the second page and is granted lot 673.
On 2 October 1785 Thomas Leach is included in the Kingston Grant, along with a lot of other individuals. He received Lot 4. This Grant made provision for:
“His Majesty’s Provincial Forces in North America setting forth that induced by several Encouragements they have sold their Estates in New England and settled themselves and their families upon Saint John River in His Majesty’s province of Nova Scotia at the distance of two hundred Miles from any other Settlement belonging to His Majesty’s Subjects and praying that the possession of the Lands on which they have seated themselves at a very great expense may be confirmed to them by His Majesty, and the said Lords Commissioners being of opinion that the memorialists deserves encouragement and protection and that the settlement they have made will be productive of public advantages.
His Majesty this day took the said representation, together with a report made thereupon by a Committee of the Lords of His Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council into His Royal consideration, and being inclined to give all fitting management for the settling of lands in the said Province in hereby pleased with the advice of his privy Council to order that the Governor or Commander in chief of His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia for the time being, do cause the lands upon which the Memorialists are settled to be laid out into a township consisting of one hundred thousand Acres or a plot of twelve Miles Square, one side of which to front the River….. “
The next land grant (37911), dated 2 November 1805, to about 30 individuals, including Thomas Leach, who received lot number twenty six in the northern division containing one hundred and sixty acres at Newcastle, Northumberland County. There was also a Reverend John Urquhart with them. The white pine, coal, gold and silver were reserved to the Crown. In other words Thomas Leach moved from the Saint John area to Newcastle in Northumberland County around 1805.
The next discovery was that a James Gillespie and Thomas Leach, along with John Colden and John McIntyre, were included in a grant (38340) of land in Northumberland County, New Brunswick in 1813, as follows:
“Land grant at New Castle, Northumberland
George the third by the Grace of GOD, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith. To all to whom these presents shall come. Greetings. Know ye that we of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, have given and granted, and We do by these presents, for Us, our heirs and successors, give and grant unto John Colden, James Gillespie, Thomas Leach and John McIntyre, in severally that is unto each of the, and unto each and every one of their several and separate heirs and assigns. In and by the several divisions, quantities lots, pieces and parcels herein after mentioned Four lots or plantations of Land containing in the whole eight hundred and sixty acres, more or less with the usual allowances of ten per cent for Roads and Waste, that is to say unto the said John Colden, Lot M in the first tract containing two hundred and seventy acres; unto the said James Gillespie Lot L in the first track containing two hundred acres; unto the said Thomas Leach lot number five, in the first tract containing one hundred and ninety five acres and unto the said John McIntyre lot K or the Second Tract containing two hundred acres; The said four lots being comprehended within two certain tracts of land situate, lying and being on the Southwest Branch of Miramichi River, about three miles above the mouth of Barnaby’s River, within the parish of Newcastle in the County of Northumberland…..”
So it would appear that the father-in-law, Thomas Leach, and son-in-law, James Gillespie, obviously knew each other and were neighbours as early as 1813 and living in Northumberland County. Newcastle is located on the north aside of the Miramichi River between Blackville Parish and Derby, although Barnaby’s River flows into the Miramichi River from the south. Chatham is also on the same side of the river just downstream from Barnaby’s River.
[1] D.G. Bell; Early Loyalist Saint John - The Origin of New Brunswick Politics 1783-1786; page published 1983, Fredericton; page 216.
Thomas Leach is included in a Grant (38761), dated 1 July 1785, by John Parr, Esquire Captain General and Governor in Chief in and over His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia and its dependencies, Vice Admiral of the same. In the grant Thomas Leach is listed on the top line of the second page and is granted lot 673.
On 2 October 1785 Thomas Leach is included in the Kingston Grant, along with a lot of other individuals. He received Lot 4. This Grant made provision for:
“His Majesty’s Provincial Forces in North America setting forth that induced by several Encouragements they have sold their Estates in New England and settled themselves and their families upon Saint John River in His Majesty’s province of Nova Scotia at the distance of two hundred Miles from any other Settlement belonging to His Majesty’s Subjects and praying that the possession of the Lands on which they have seated themselves at a very great expense may be confirmed to them by His Majesty, and the said Lords Commissioners being of opinion that the memorialists deserves encouragement and protection and that the settlement they have made will be productive of public advantages.
His Majesty this day took the said representation, together with a report made thereupon by a Committee of the Lords of His Majesty’s most honourable Privy Council into His Royal consideration, and being inclined to give all fitting management for the settling of lands in the said Province in hereby pleased with the advice of his privy Council to order that the Governor or Commander in chief of His Majesty’s Province of Nova Scotia for the time being, do cause the lands upon which the Memorialists are settled to be laid out into a township consisting of one hundred thousand Acres or a plot of twelve Miles Square, one side of which to front the River….. “
The next land grant (37911), dated 2 November 1805, to about 30 individuals, including Thomas Leach, who received lot number twenty six in the northern division containing one hundred and sixty acres at Newcastle, Northumberland County. There was also a Reverend John Urquhart with them. The white pine, coal, gold and silver were reserved to the Crown. In other words Thomas Leach moved from the Saint John area to Newcastle in Northumberland County around 1805.
The next discovery was that a James Gillespie and Thomas Leach, along with John Colden and John McIntyre, were included in a grant (38340) of land in Northumberland County, New Brunswick in 1813, as follows:
“Land grant at New Castle, Northumberland
George the third by the Grace of GOD, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith. To all to whom these presents shall come. Greetings. Know ye that we of our special grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, have given and granted, and We do by these presents, for Us, our heirs and successors, give and grant unto John Colden, James Gillespie, Thomas Leach and John McIntyre, in severally that is unto each of the, and unto each and every one of their several and separate heirs and assigns. In and by the several divisions, quantities lots, pieces and parcels herein after mentioned Four lots or plantations of Land containing in the whole eight hundred and sixty acres, more or less with the usual allowances of ten per cent for Roads and Waste, that is to say unto the said John Colden, Lot M in the first tract containing two hundred and seventy acres; unto the said James Gillespie Lot L in the first track containing two hundred acres; unto the said Thomas Leach lot number five, in the first tract containing one hundred and ninety five acres and unto the said John McIntyre lot K or the Second Tract containing two hundred acres; The said four lots being comprehended within two certain tracts of land situate, lying and being on the Southwest Branch of Miramichi River, about three miles above the mouth of Barnaby’s River, within the parish of Newcastle in the County of Northumberland…..”
So it would appear that the father-in-law, Thomas Leach, and son-in-law, James Gillespie, obviously knew each other and were neighbours as early as 1813 and living in Northumberland County. Newcastle is located on the north aside of the Miramichi River between Blackville Parish and Derby, although Barnaby’s River flows into the Miramichi River from the south. Chatham is also on the same side of the river just downstream from Barnaby’s River.
[1] D.G. Bell; Early Loyalist Saint John - The Origin of New Brunswick Politics 1783-1786; page published 1983, Fredericton; page 216.